130 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 26, 1924 
Back to the Sidewalks 
A Husband Dragged to Town 
The letter of M. J. A. on page 4 about 
rural schools, I would like to answer as 
briefly as possible, by stating a parallel 
case./ My neighbor has a boy in the 
second or third grade, about whose edu¬ 
cation she has developed a wonderful am¬ 
bition. Just why? Because she loves 
the city. Her husband has always made 
a comfortable living in the country, but 
was persuaded by his helpmate (?) this 
year to rent his place and move to the 
nearest town for the boy’s sake. The 
father was counted very fortunate in 
getting a job at a gasoline filling station 
at $100 per month, working 14 hours a 
day, seven days in the week. Perhaps all 
hours are not absolutely filled with work ; 
he may have spare moments in which to 
ponder on the jobs the city offers him in 
exchange for the country life he has given 
up. 
I know another woman who has stayed 
in the country with her husband, and by 
their good teamwork have given two sons 
and one daughter a college education, the 
foundation of which was laid in their 
own district school. It is true the child¬ 
ren had “pep” enough to help themselves 
by teaching part of the time, and by 
working during vacations. The old home 
place is one of the finest in the neighbor¬ 
hood. The boys, when they come home 
on their vacations, always get busy mak¬ 
ing improvements. An electric plant first, 
and water works; this season a concrete 
chicken coop was built. Why in the 
world a man should be asked to give up 
his farm and dragged off to town to satisfy 
his wife’s ambition for her son’s educa¬ 
tion is beyond the comprehension of the 
writer. 
Rural teachers are every bit as am¬ 
bitious for their pupils to make good 
grades as are teachers in city schools. I 
have had my eyes on them for 40 years 
in one district I know about and do de¬ 
clare that however young they have all 
been hustlers. And not a bit of fancy 
work have I seen on the teacher’s desk 
since back in the ’90’s, and. that teacher 
got married at the end of the term, so 
surely her zeal for a few pretty trifles 
may be pardoned. c - D - 
Ohio. 
A Farm Mother Talks 
Since reading M. J. A.’s letter I 
thought I would say a word m defense ot 
the district schools. No doubt if she were 
a taxpayer, which I understand from her 
letter she is not, as taxpayers do not pick 
up and move at every little disturbance, 
she could see the other side of the ques¬ 
tion. Evidently she has nothing to lose 
by consolidation of schools, and is dis¬ 
gusted at her husband for being a farmer 
when she wants to live in town. We 
farmers’ wives, who love the country, and 
are proud to have our husbands farmers, 
still insist that we have something to say 
in regard to where our children should go 
to school, and by all means I think, the 
majority still vote for the country school- 
house where our little ones can go, and 
we are not worried to death for fear they 
will be killed by an auto truck or frozen 
to death on a long journey home. As for 
the untried, underpaid girls who teach our 
schools, I dare make a guess we pay our 
teacher as large a salary as M. J. As 
husband receives, unless the farmers he 
works for are far richer than most farm¬ 
ers are. Surely everyone has to make a 
start somewhere. We cannot all be old 
and experienced at one time, and the con¬ 
solidated schools will have to take on 
young teachers at times as well as the 
rural schools.- I can see no benefit to the 
rural community by consolidation, and 
much more hard work to raise the monej 
to pay extra taxes to help keep a large 
number of white-collar men on easy 
street. M * 
New York. 
Discontented in the Country 
I have read the communication of 
M. J. A., and I am very sorry for the 
unhappy discontented mother. I have 
seen a number of such women. Ihey do 
not care so much for the school as, to 
quote some I know, “To get my feet on 
the sidewalks and go to the movies and 
anvwhere else I want to.” She should be 
thankful that her husband loves the 
country and does not care for the dis¬ 
sipations of the city. It is no disgrace 
to follow a plow and milk cows and look 
after the horses and other stock, and 
does not make a man who farms, most of 
them I know anyway, a mere animal. 
The farmer is as intelligent as any other 
class of people, and I very much resent 
the attitude of M. J. A. A farmer is as 
intelligent and happy as the men who 
work all day in a hot, close, dirty shop, 
standing on a hard cement floor, or lifting 
heavy castings, or who w#rk cleaning 
streets or any other of the dirty (of couise 
respectable) jobs in a city, a^s not all city 
people work at white-collar jobs. 
I have often thought, when I have been 
in the city, how sorry I felt for many of 
the people I see at work. Why do those 
in favor of the new school law always 
talk of the half-paid young school teacher? 
The law now is that no school teacher 
shall be paid less than $800.00 per year 
which is $20 or $25 per week for five 
six-hour days, which is more than many 
clerks and office girls receive, so let us 
not hear any more of that. If M. J. A. 
did not tell her boy all the time about 
what a poor chance he has, he might pick 
up and do better. It is not the fault of 
the school. I have a grandson who was 
13 in May, and passed his regents ex¬ 
amination and is now in high school. He 
is not so much smarter than lots of other 
country boys. A neighbor’s boy w-as 13 
in October and he is also is first year 
high. I am very sorry for M. J. A.’s hus¬ 
band, who has to live with suc-h a dis¬ 
contented wife. I see no way but for her 
to leave her man and go to the city to 
work, and take her boy along. If a man 
furnishes his wife and family a home and 
is willing to work and earn them a living, 
the wife must live in the home, or he 
does not have to support her. I am not 
in favor of man and wife separating, but 
it must be very discouraging for a man 
to have a wife like M. J. A. As they are 
not apparently taxpayers she should not 
say anything about the school business 
and send her boy to school and help him 
at home. If he is not interested in school 
blessed with babies really believe that to 
bring a child into the world and “bring 
him safely to manhood” is the biggest 
and the most worth-while job that can 
engage the best efforts of husband and 
wife? Do they prepare for it as carefully 
as for the business whereby they expect 
to earn their daily bread? Do they read 
and study and meditate? Have they 
vision? Do they remember their own 
youth and the mistakes they made, and 
try to make the path straighter for their 
own? If parents would read Roosevelt’s 
Letters to his Children” they would get a 
wonderful vision of the possibilities of 
that relation between a child and his par¬ 
ent. They would be struck with the wis¬ 
dom and careful consideration with which 
he treats their problems, and how, while 
leaving them to their own decisions, he 
gives to them unstintedly of his own 
wider experience and outlook. So much 
is there to be said on this subject that 
in order to prevent this article from be¬ 
coming too lengthy, I wish to append a 
few observations which we have made in 
consideration of our own boy problem, and 
which though not by any means covering 
the subject, may possibly help some one. 
We will call them “Guide Posts Along 
the Way,” each one of which could be 
expanded into a chapter of a book. 
1. Here is a being starting out upon the 
Motor-drawn Snow Plow and Disk Clearing Wisconsin Roads 
he cannot learn anywhere he goes. An 
education does not keep a man out of 
jail, or always make him better. It often 
helps him to be worse. What we want 
most is a better moral and religious train¬ 
ing for our young. sirs. e. j. b. 
New York. 
What About That “Boy Problem?” 
On page 1575, under the caption “The 
Boy Problem,” I find two questions which 
have for years lain close to my heart. 
“What makes boys in good homes go 
wrong or twisted?” and “Aren’t there 
people who have brought their boys safely 
to manhood who could help us with 
(their) our problems?” 
When my boy was a baby there were 
no end of people who were willing to help 
with advice as to how to feed, dress, 
bathe and perform all the other duties 
demanded by the young animal. This was 
very kind and helpful, and I was able to 
bring the boy along through the years 
happy, healthy, in fact with absolutely 
no sickness, although I occasionally con¬ 
sulted our family physician. But, while 
the baby interested my friends, and their 
experience was most helpful. I found them 
strangely reticent in talking with me 
about problems of later life. Many who 
had “brought their sons safely to man¬ 
hood.” shied at any confidence regarding 
their own problems and the solution of 
them. From only one mother did I ever 
get any assistance after baby days. Per¬ 
haps they feel that the task is not done; 
that something may happen even now to 
brand them as unsuccessful mothers. Per¬ 
haps, if they have succeeded, they feel 
that it would not be seemly to talk about 
their success. At any rate, like Mary of 
old, they seem to keep all these things 
and ponder them in their hearts. 
The bringing up of children never has 
been and probably never will be stand¬ 
ardized. What seems best for one seems 
not to be the wise method of dealing with 
another. Environment and heredity are 
factors which cannot be overlooked, and 
how can the most successful of parents, 
regard their grown children with as much 
complacency as they please, take too much 
credit to themselves when young Jack, 
their own son’s playfellow, the poor neg¬ 
lected child of shiftless shallow parents, 
develops into the finest type of man¬ 
hood too. in spite of these handicaps? 
I wonder how many people who are 
long way of life. There are many roads 
for him to take. Why shouldn’t he go 
wrong unless we help him to go right? 
2. Anticipate. Don’t wait until it is 
too late before teaching the habits of life 
which all must learn somehow. And 
teaching means causing to know, not just 
telling. 
3. Don’t leave it to teachers. By the 
time the teacher gets him it may be too 
late. Cardinal Newman said. “Give me 
the first seven years of a child’s life, and 
I will answer for the rest.” 
4. Letting a child go wrong and then 
suffer the consequences is a cruel back- 
handed way of teaching. 
5. If you wish your child to be honest, 
truthful and self-controlled, how better 
can you teach him than by making an 
object lesson of yourself? 
6. Teach your child the facts of life, 
as he isi able to understand. Anstver all 
his questions in a way that will satisfy 
him. Physiology, morality and religion, 
all have their part in preparing a child 
long before the need comes for the 
adolescent age. I know of no sadder pic¬ 
ture than one I have seen on the cover of 
some sex book showing a father telling his 
son of 13 or 14 the things he should 
know. Too late, that business should 
have been looked after years ago. Knowl¬ 
edge of and respect for the sac-redness of 
his own body should be his long before he 
has had a chance to spend 13 years 
wondering about it. 
7. Be ceaseless in your effort to Keep 
the way always open between his heart 
and yours. By so doing you will be able 
to help him over many a crisis when if it 
had not been for that blessed open way 
you would never have known there was 
a crisis. 
8. Be not only guide, friend and phil¬ 
osopher to your child. Be his jolly good 
companion and playmate as well. 
9. Enrich his life with good 3ooks. 
He will like the best if he has the right 
help. Too often a book is given a child 
at the wrong time, and he hates it ever 
after. They must be suited to his age 
and mental development. If he gets hold 
of a book you do not approve don’t take 
it from him. Read it with him, and by 
the time it is finished his opinion will 
very likely be similar to yours. 
10. Don’t do all the giving. Let him 
give to you; let him help you. Let him 
know from earliest childhood that the 
world needs men who can stand erect and 
play the game of life according to rule, 
and that the Golden Rule covers them all. 
A TEACHER MOTHER, 
A Motor Snow Plow 
The dual outfit illustrated in the ac¬ 
companying picture has made, during last 
Winter, an odd and interesting record in 
a land of plentiful snow. It not only has 
cleared the roads for farmer folk, but ]t 
has swept clean town and city streets 
and sidewalks, having nothing more than 
the work for its pay. Had it not been 
for, the work of these men, patients in a 
hospital would have been deprived of the 
visits of their friends, and they would 
have been shut off from mail and other 
communications. 
The work was all done in the Sturgeon 
Bay region of the Door County penin¬ 
sula of Wisconsin, and several times re¬ 
peated. The sheet iron plow was hooked 
to a tractor by a motor company, and 
one or another of the company’s men op¬ 
erated it. The same power concern op¬ 
erated the motor-draw T n disk. In places 
where there was heavy crust on the snow, 
the disk was used to cut it up, and the 
plow followed. In other places where 
great drifts were removed, the disk fol¬ 
lowed the plow, smoothing down the 
banks that the plow threw up on either 
side. The work would not have been 
done had it not been for the generous 
and enterprising efforts of these men. 
Within the last decade a great part of 
Door County has undergone a wonderful 
fruit growing development. Last season 
upward of a million packages of a great 
variety of fruit was harvested and canned 
or shipped. The fruit men who operate 
these orchards are busy in Winter months 
with operations for the taking care of the 
crop of the next year. Factories within 
easy reach of the orchards make all the 
boxes, crates and barrels. The material 
for the containers, in logs or bolts, is 
moved to the mills during the Winter. It 
is important that the roads be kept open, 
that shops be kept running and that 
there be no interruption of the mails. 
The tractors hauling plows and disks 
operated far out into the country dis¬ 
tricts. No one save the people of all 
classes who work and live in this much 
favored fruit region properly appreciate 
the value of this self-imposed task. 
J. L. GRAFF. 
CONTENTS 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, JAN. 26, 1924 
FARM TOPICS 
Hope Farm Notes. 134, 135 
“Spontaneous” Clover; Bad Water. 135 
LIVE STOCK AND DAIRY 
The Cow and the Cattle Buyer.119, 120 
Plain Talk from Leading Dairymen, Part 
II .J20, 121 
Meetings of Dairymen. 128 
Curing a Self-sucking Cow .. 133 
Figures for Milk Prices.. 137 
Excessive Grain Feed. 142 
Feeding Family Cow. 142 
Ration Without Silage ...’ 142 
Buckwheat in Dairy Ration . 144 
Ration for Holsteins . 144 
Developing Young Stock .144, 145 
Bringing Up Production . 145 
Feeding Dry Cows and Milkers. 145 
Beans as Sheep Feed. 147 
THE HENYARD 
Egg Production on the Pacific Coast. 119 
The Two-Egg-a-Day Hen . 119 
Crowding in Brooder .. 129 
Poultry Questions . 129 
What Is It? . 129 
Wintering Turkeys . 129 
When to Feed Mash . .. 148 
Retained Yolks; Crooked Breastbones. 148 
Trouble After Kerosene Dip. 148 
Building Henhouse . 148 
Egg-laying Contest ..:.150, 151 
Lame Ducks . 150 
Tough Membrane in Eggs; Testing for Fer¬ 
tility . 151 
HORTICULTURE 
Lining Out An Orchard . 120 
Bud Variation in Apples. 120 
Planting One-year Whips . 122 
Strawberries in Florida . 123 
Plants for Rough Shady Spots. 123 
The Common Red Spider . 127 
Culture of Celleriac . 127 
The Trials of a Pioneer. 133 
WOMAN AND HOME 
The Pastoral Parson ..... 124, 126 
From the Kitchen Window . 128 
Help for Cracked Hands . 128 
Farm Mother Talks . 130 
Boys and Girls .138, 139, 147 
The Home Dressmaker ... 140 
January Changes . 141 
MISCELLANEOUS 
Editorials . 136 
Sherman J. Lowell on the School Bill. 137 
Ah Syracuse, January 31st.137 
Henry Ford and the President. 137 1 
The Cost of “Service” . 137 
A 48-cent Turkey Dollar . 137 
A School Meeting in Ontario County . 137 
The Curious Snow Flea. 127 
Motor Snow Plow . 130 
The Boy Problem . 130 
Notes from the Ox-team Express . 131 
Publishers 1 Desk . 154 
